If you notice your chat messages show up in the chat feed but don't appear on the streamers in-screen chat, you have been shadowbanned.

Twitch will still take your money for donations, subs, etc, but your feedback won't be seen by anybody but you. This shadowban does not appear in the appeals page and can be applied randomly and intermittently. You are never informed about this by the way. You'll likely be talking in a chat and assuming you're being ignored. Hop into a private tab and load up the stream where you'll be able to notice if your messages are missing in chat.

From my observations, there seems to be some type of algorithm/system that determines who to shadowban. I'm assuming it assigns extra points for factors like VPN usage, Linux, and adblockers. Once you've been shadowbanned, switching one of those three will not work to unban you until some arbitrary timer expires.

I'm posting this in case anybody else has experienced this and felt frustrated and isolated. You're not being ignored (unless you're a twat and are being ignored). You're just being punished by Twitch for being privacy conscious.

I have an extension that can individually disable all the most useless/addicting components of the Youtube site, such as shorts and whatnot. On the search page, I have turned on:

hide Shorts

hide For You

hide Trending

hide 'People Also Searched For'

hide Search Categories

hide Promoted Videos

hide Promoted Websites

hide Suggested Products

Do you know what Youtube has started doing? They are now inserting engagement slop DIRECTLY into the search results, as seen in the image above. It's literally a short, yet it's inserted like a video so you're forced to see it. The only possible way to remove it is by using a privacy frontend, as even on incognito mode, Youtube will look at the three videos you've watched and start inserting shit based off that.

Louis Rossman is right, they all have rapist mentalities... "just let me stick it in"

Is it possivle to debloat a fire tv stick? I.e. remove all amazon related apps and replace the launcher. The info I find online is scattered around and depends on the version.

Recently stumbled upon this note-taking app called SiYuan, but it honestly looks a bit too good to be true(?). Has anyone here used it or got any experience with it? Trying to replace Obsidian is a difficult task, and I've been through almost all note-taking apps there are out there, however this one looks fairly similar.

Link to Repo;

https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan

Link to project;

https://b3log.org/siyuan/en/

I am not satisfied with Linux's security and have been researching alternative open source OS for privacy and security So far only thing that's ready to use is GrapheneOS (Based on Android) but that's not available on desktop (Though when Android release Desktop mode it may become viable)

Qubes OS is wrapper around underlying operating systems, so it doesn’t really fix for example Linux’s security holes it just kinda sandbox/virtualize them

OpenBSD is more secure than Linux on a base level but lack mitigations and patches that are added to linux overtime and it's security practices while good for it's time is outdated now

RedoxOS (Written in Rust) got some nice ideas but sticks to same outdated practices and doesn't break the wheel too much, and security doesn't seems to be main focus of OS

Haiku and Serenity are outright worse than Linux, especially Haiku as it's single user only

Serenity adopted Pledge and Unveil from OpenBSD but otherwise lacks basic security features

All new security paradigms seems to be happening in microkernels and these are the ones that caught my eyes

None of these are ready to be used as daily driver OS but in future (hopefully) it may change

Genode seems to be far ahead of game than everything else

Ironclad Written in ADA

Atmosphere And Mesosphere Open Source Re-implementation of Nintendo Switch's Horizon OS, I didn't expected this to be security-oriented but seems like Nintendo has done a very solid job

Then there are Managarm, HelenOS, Theseus but I couldn't figure out how secure they are

Finally there is Kicksecure from creators of Whonix, Kicksecure is a linux distro that plans to fix Linux's security problems

if you know of any other OS please share it here

Identity theft is a common cause of anxiety in modern society, and it's pretty justifiable. According to a recent survey from US News, almost three quarters of adults have experienced at least one case of identity theft, and 27% have experienced more than one. In 2022 there were more than 1.1 million reports of identity theft, costing Americans a total of $8.8 billion dollars with a median of $650. One-in-five respondents reported that they continue to suffer financial consequences to this day. It's no wonder that a multi-billion-dollar industry has sprung up around protecting against identity theft. But does it make sense to pay for an identity theft protection service? Or is it just snake oil?

Apparently Apple can end-to-end encrypt your iCloud, but it’s opt in because they still want to profit off your data >_<

To enable this, go to Settings -> iCloud -> Advanced Data Protection

You need to have all the devices under your apple account to be fully updated, and you’ll need to remember a 28-key passphrase for recovery

I hate how big tech treats privacy as an afterthought. This should have been the default. But oh well. Spread the world people.

HeliBoard keyboard is an improved fork of the now-unmaintained OpenBoard keyboard. It does not require internet permission, allowing it to be used 100% offline.

Features

• Add dictionaries for suggestions and spell check

  • Build your own, or access them here, or in the experimental section (quality may vary)
  • Additional dictionaries for emojis or scientific symbols can be used to provide suggestions (similar to "emoji search")
  • Note that for Korean layouts, suggestions only work using this dictionary; the tools in the dictionary repository cannot create working dictionaries

• Customize keyboard themes (style, colors, and background image)

  • Can follow the system's day/night setting on Android 10+ (and on some versions of Android 9)
  • Can follow dynamic colors for Android 12+

• Customize keyboard layouts (only available when disabling system languages)

• Multilingual typing

• Glide typing (only with closed-source library ☹️)

  • Library not included in the app, as there is no compatible open-source library available
  • Can be extracted from GApps packages ("swypelibs"), or downloaded here

• Clipboard history

• One-handed mode

• Split keyboard (only available if the screen is large enough)

• Number pad

• Backup and restore your learned word/history data

Hidden Functionality

Features that may go unnoticed, and further potentially useful information

• Long-pressing the Clipboard Key (the optional one in the suggestion strip) pastes system clipboard contents.
• Long-pressing keys in the suggestion strip toolbar pins them to the suggestion strip.
• Long-press the Comma-key to access Clipboard View, Emoji View, One-handed Mode, Settings, or Switch Language:
  • Emoji View and Language Switch will disappear if you have the corresponding key enabled;
  • For some layouts, it's not the Comma-key, but the key at the same position (e.g. it's q for Dvorak layout).
• When incognito mode is enabled, no words will be learned, and no emojis will be added to recents.
• Sliding key input: Swipe from shift or symbol key to another key. This will enter a single uppercase key or symbol and return to the previous keyboard.
• Hold shift or symbol key, press one or more keys, and then release shift or symbol key to return to the previous keyboard.
• Long-press a suggestion in the suggestion strip to show more suggestions, and a delete button to remove this suggestion.
• Swipe up from a suggestion to open more suggestions, and release on the suggestion to select it.
• Long-press an entry in the clipboard history to pin it (keep it in clipboard until you unpin).
• Swipe left in clipboard view to remove an entry (except when it's pinned)
• Select text and press shift to switch between uppercase, lowercase, and capitalize words
• You can add dictionaries by opening the file
  • This only works with content-uris and not with file-uris, meaning that it may not work with some file explorers.
• Debug mode / debug APK
  • Long-press a suggestion in the suggestion strip twice to show the source dictionary.
  • When using debug APK, you can find Debug Settings within the Advanced Preferences, though the usefulness is limited except for dumping dictionaries into the log.
    • For a release APK, you need to tap the version in About several times, then you can find debug settings in Advanced Preferences.
    • When enabling Show suggestion infos, suggestions will have some tiny numbers on top showing some internal score and source dictionary.
  • In the event of an application crash, you will be prompted whether you want the crash logs when you open the Settings.
  • When using multilingual typing, the space bar will show a confidence value used for determining the currently used language.
• For users doing manual backups with root access: Starting at Android 7, some files and the main shared preferences file are not in the default location because the app is using device-protected storage. This is necessary so the settings and layout files can be read before the device is unlocked, e.g., at boot. The files are usually located in /data/user_de/0/<package_id>/, though the location may depend on the device and Android version.

Planned features and improvements:

• Customizable functional key layout
  • Will likely result in having the same functional key layout for alphabet and symbols layouts
• Support for alt, ctrl, meta and fn (#479)
• Less complicated addition of new keyboard languages (e.g. #519)
• Additional and customizable key swipe functionality
  • Some functionality will not be possible when using glide typing
• Ability to enter all emojis independent of Android version (optional, #297)
• (limited) support for customizing all internally used colors
• Add and enable emoji dictionaries by default (if available for language)
• Clearer / more intuitive arrangement of settings
  • Maybe hide some less used settings by default (similar to color customization)
• Customizable currency keys
• Customizable clipboard toolbar keys (#513, #403)
• Ability to export/import (share) custom colors
• Make use of the .com key in URL fields (currently only available for tablets)
  • With language-dependent TLDs
• Internal cleanup (a lot of over-complicated and convoluted code)
• (optionally?) move toolbar key pinning to a setting, so long press actions on unpinned toolbar keys are available
• Bug fixes

What will not be added:

• Material 3 (not worth adding 1.5 MB to app size)
• Dictionaries for more languages (you can still download them)
• Anything that requires additional permissions

cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/7876457

Turning Off the Roku Features of Your TCL Smart TV

You have the option to disable the Roku features of your TCL Smart TV...

Are comments no longer visible for anyone else using the youtube frontends? I can no longer see comments with either invidious, piped, or viewtube, and I've tried several instances of each. With invidious there's just nothing there below the video description. With viewtube I get an error message. And with piped I see placeholder text "Avatar, null, -1 replies" in place of every comment. The last one is kind of funny actually, and better than most comments anyway.

I'm assuming youtube/google did something fucky again to try to dissuade people from doing what they can to escape their bullshit and hopefully viewing the comments on videos will be back to normal when the frontend devs make it work again in a couple days. But I figured it would be worth checking here to make sure it's not just on my end. Then again, it will probably be better for my sanity and my struggle not to descend into sheer misanthropic hatred if I just never read youtube comments again.

Hi all! I'm working on my cyber security bachelor's thesis and am reaching out to gather insights from users who use decentralized messaging applications.

I would be incredibly thankful if you could find the 2 to 4 minutes to fill out the form. Your experience in the matter is incredibly valuable.

You'll find the survey at https://questionnaire.ink/412758

Your responses are confidential and will be used solely for supporting my thesis. No personally identifiable information is collected.

Thanks!

EM Eye investigates a cybersecurity attack where the attackers eavesdrop on the confidential video data of cameras by parsing the unintentional electromagnetic leakage signals from camera circuits. This happens on the physical/analog layer of camera systems and thus allows attackers to steal victim's camera data even when perfect software protections (e.g., unbreakable passwords) are all in place. Exploiting the eavesdropped videos, attackers can spy on privacy-sensitive information such as people's activities in an enclosed room recorded by the victim's home security camera. [...]

Paper.

I've noticed that ads are absolutely everywhere, and wanted to post this to disillusion some of the places we see ads but don't realize. It would be harder to make a list of places you don't see ads.

Websites

The most common place to see ads is on nearly every website you visit. It's usually the most intrusive, especially with popups.

Books

The very end page of books and back cover of books will often advertise books written by the same author.

Billboards

Billboards along busy streets and highways often display static or moving ads. A notable mention is its role in the book Fahrenheit 451, where it was theorized that as cars get faster ads would have to be stretched out so people can see them better at high speeds.

Operating systems

Some Android operating systems, as well as Windows, show ads in a non intrusive way.

Apps

Especially mobile games, ads will be displayed anywhere possible, and sometimes used as a reward system. Social media apps display ads while scrolling, and even messaging apps will have some sort of promotion like requesting donations.

Mail

Deemed "junk mail", companies will collect and sell the address of residents in order to send useless advertisements to the residents. This can't usually be opted out of. In my opinion, this should be illegal.

Phone calls

Especially when put on hold, businesses will interject occasional advertisements in between the low quality jazz music. Customer support will also often advertise products to you while you are being assisted.

Newspapers

Newspapers have entire pages filled with ads. Some of these are promotional coupons that can be used to get overpriced products for a regular price.

Magazines

Magazines are fundamentally only used to advertise products in a passive way. The chances you actually have a meaningful experience with a magazine are slim. They are often placed in waiting rooms as a form of entertainment for people who don't want to use a phone at the time.

Music

Between songs in radio broadcasts, long ad breaks will be placed. Music streaming services will also inject ads between songs. Even the hosts of podcasts will have sponsorship segments.

Disk movies

DVD and Blueray disks will often come with ads baked in to advertise "upcoming" movies. That is, until 10 years passes and Peter Pan becomes a funny ad to see.

Movie theaters

Between movie showings, movie theaters will display long ad segments while you wait for the movie to begin. Some very long movies are even split in half, with an ad break in between for you to empty your wallet and refill your popcorn.

Bleachers

In sporting events, moving ads will be displayed under bleachers. Fun fact, these ads change depending on which channel you are watching the game from.

Commercials

Between live television, you will get 1-3 minutes of commercials and then watch the shortest segment of your actual show.

Baked into videos

Videos such as YouTube videos will have sponsorships and self-promotion baked in, causing the drastic rise of SponsorBlock.

Torrents

Some torrented files will also have text or image files attached advertising other torrenting services.

Vehicles

Buses, vans, cars, and others are often plastered with ads for different services. If you're in a car wreck, call emergency services first, not an auto repair shop.

Social media

Social media is one of the go-to methods of marketing. Besides the ads you see while doom scrolling, many pictures and videos uploaded will simply be ads for products.

Gas stations

Plastered all over gas stations, and apparently displayed on some gas pump screens, ads are placed everywhere. Is that not more of a fire hazard than eight closely packed gasoline tanks?

Posters

Pasted inside schools, workplaces, plastered on power poles and sides of buildings, posters are cheap to make and placed everywhere.

Instruction manuals

When buying a product, besides impossibly small print, some instruction manuals will have ads pasted in certain sections. Some devices like mice, keyboards, and headphones advertise proprietary software required to get the full extent of your product.

Wearables

T-Shirts, pins, bracelets, hats, and all other kinds of merch will display company names for everyone to see. Ironically, companies see these kinds of clothing as inappropriate attire on the job.

Pens

Another kind of merch, nearly every free pen has the name and contact info of businesses on it.

Redirects to downloads

Some websites will redirect you to ad websites before beginning your download. Lots of these websites (such as the infamous AdFly) are malicious and will encourage you to download malicious software.

Grocery stores

Solicitors in store, ads during checkout, product placement all throughout the store, ads over the intercom, nearly every type of ad imaginable can be found in grocery stores.

Speakers on public transport

Some subways and buses will play ads over the speakers while you travel. No napping on the bus, we want you awake to hear our ads!

Emails

Spam emails are frequently sent to people, so commonly an entire folder is dedicated to housing them. Even places you legitimately gave your email to will send you spam.

Comments and chat messages

People will often self promote their accounts on various platforms. This is a common place for scams to arise.

Solicitors

Solicitors will come on your private property just to sell their products to you. Just when you thought ads could never come knocking on your doorstep, they did.

Lawns

Lawn signs for services such as lawn care or political messages will be placed on people's property as a form of willing advertisement. Flowers look a lot better than rust and plastic.

Airplanes

Some airplanes will pull long banners with ads behind them. This is usually surrounding sporting events.

Brand names

Products produced by any company will have brand names on them. This makes it easy for advertising to flow through word-of-mouth. But seriously, where did you get that shirt from?

Search engines

Almost all search engines will display ad websites before legitimate search results

This post

Even this post had an advertisement in it that I bet most of you missed. I passively advertised "SponsorBlock" under "Baked into videos". If you missed it, that's ok. Advertising has become so common that people have become desensitized to it.

SimpleX Chat is an instant messenger that is decentralized and doesn't depend on any unique identifiers such as phone numbers or usernames. Users of SimpleX Chat can scan a QR code or click an invite link to participate in group conversations.

-privacyguides.org

It's clearly proving to be the most innovative technology when it comes to decentralized communication, in my opinion.

Idk if this is the right instance for this, but how fucking tired of these forced ads at gas pumps is everyone else?

I'm paying 4 bucks a gallon to have you shove advertising down my throat like an erect cock?

What the actual fuck

Anyone have any good ad blocking practices for this?

I've seen duct or painters tape covering the speakers...

You can press a button next to the screen to mute it, but this doesn't work at all gas stations. (Usually its the 2nd from the top on the right side)

I guess its just time to gettoblast music every time I pump gas like back when I was 19....